Southwest Airlines Flight 812
N632SW, after the incident, with the yellow arrow indicating the failure in the upper fuselage skin | |
| Incident | |
|---|---|
| Date | April 1, 2011 |
| Summary | Rapid decompression caused by in-flight structural failure |
| Site | near Yuma, Arizona |
| Aircraft | |
| N632SW, the aircraft involved in the incident, seen in 2007 | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-3H4 |
| Operator | Southwest Airlines |
| IATA flight No. | WN812 |
| ICAO flight No. | SWA812 |
| Registration | N632SW |
| Flight origin | Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix, Arizona |
| Destination | Sacramento International Airport, Sacramento, California |
| Occupants | 122 |
| Passengers | 117 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Fatalities | 0 |
| Injuries | 2 |
| Survivors | 122 |
Southwest Airlines Flight 812 was a Boeing 737-300 passenger jet that on April 1, 2011, suffered rapid depressurization while cruising at 34,000 ft (10,000 m) near Yuma, Arizona, leading to an emergency landing at Yuma International Airport. Two of the 122 people on board suffered minor injuries. The aircraft was operating Southwest Airlines' domestic scheduled service from Phoenix, Arizona, to Sacramento, California.
The depressurization was caused by the structural failure of the fuselage skin, which produced a hole approximately 60 inches (150 cm) long on the upper fuselage. The NTSB investigation revealed evidence of pre-existing metal fatigue, and determined the probable cause of the incident to be related to an error in the manufacturing process for joining fuselage crown skin panels.
The incident was the second of this type in less than two years, following the structural failure of Southwest Airlines Flight 2294 in 2009, and led to the FAA increasing the inspection rate of certain airframes.